Matt Weston has won gold in the men’s singles skeleton competition, Team GB’s first medal at the Winter Olympics in Italy.

The 28-year-old, a world and European champion, had been the favourite for gold after leading at the halfway stage of the event on Thursday, with track records in the first two heats.

On Friday, the British athlete posted another track record on his third run – recording a 0.39-second advantage at the top of the leaderboard.

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A near faultless run in his final heat at the Milano Cortina Games saw him increase his margin of victory to 0.88 seconds, bringing the gold home with a fourth track record.

Germany’s Axel Jungk took his second successive Olympic ⁠silver, ​while Jungk’s compatriot and ⁠defending champion Christopher ⁠Grotheer picked up ​the bronze.

Marcus Wyatt, Team GB’s other medal hopeful, finished ninth on Friday.

In March 2025, Weston took his second world champion crown and last month he clinched his third successive overall World Cup title.

His Olympic win marks the first-ever gold in the men’s skeleton for Team GB.

Explainer: Who is Matt Weston?

Weston made his debut in skeleton in 2019, previously competing in taekwondo and securing several European and international honours.

He continued in that discipline until the age of 17, when he retired due to injury.

Speaking after his skeleton win, Weston said: “[It means] everything. It means a hell of a lot to me personally. I have worked so hard for this.

“Everyone back at home, my fiancee, my family, my friends, everyone that has sacrificed for me to be here. I have missed funerals, birthdays, everything for this moment and it feels amazing.”

Sir Keir Starmer celebrated the victory, with the prime minister saying in a post on X: “History-making. Congratulations Matt Weston!”

Team GB had won a medal in the skeleton at each of the Games since 2002 until 2018.

Lizzy Yarnold secured two golds, at Sochi in 2014 and PyeongChang in 2018, while Dom Parsons was Britain’s first male skeleton medallist since 1948 in South Korea, winning bronze in the men’s event, and Amy Williams won gold in 2010 in Vancouver.

Weston is the first individual male British competitor to win gold at a Winter Olympics since figure skater Robin Cousins in 1980.

His victory comes after Ukrainian competitor Vladyslav Heraskevych was disqualified 30 minutes before the start of the session on Thursday because he defied calls to not wear his “helmet of remembrance” depicting athletes killed since Russia’s invasion.

Sir Keir’s speech at the major security gathering followed an address by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who hit out at the mistakes of Western nations over the past 40 years, but sought to reconcile ties between the US and Europe after recent turmoil in the transatlantic relationship.

Sweden’s Oskar Eriksson and Canada’s Marc Kennedy exchange tense words after the Swedes accused the Canadian’s of double-tapping their stones during their men’s curling match at the 2026 Winter Olympics.

READ MORE: ‘I told him where to stick it’ – Canada and Sweden in curling row

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A protester outside the High Court, central London, where Dame Victoria Sharp, Mr Justice Swift and Mrs Justice Steyn have ruled in favour of Palestine Action’s co-founder Huda Ammori’s challenge over the ban of the organisation as a terror group (Jonathan Brady/PA)

PA Wire

Walid Saadaoui, 38, was jailed for life this week for the plot that unravelled when he was arrested in Last Drop Hotel car park in Bromley Cross with a car full of guns in May 2024.

Officers have now released footage of their interview with Saadaoui when he was told that one of his apparent co-conspirators had been working undercover to stop him.

The undercover operative was known only as “Farouk” during the ensuing trial last year, but Saadaoui had known him as “Abu Bilel”.

In the interview footage, Saadaoui is dressed all in grey in a police interview room an appears to react impassively when he is told the truth about the undercover operative.

He tells the officers: “Like I said to you before, whether has undercover of not, I was not expecting any guns to come over.

“I was not involved in any planning of harming people like I said before, what I said to you is true.”

During last year’s trial at Preston Crown Court the undercover operative spent days in the witness box laying bare the extent of Saadaoui’s plot.

Having met on Queens Park after communicating online, Saadaoui and “Farouk” secured a safehouse on Stratford Avenue, off Chorley Old Road.

(Left to right) Walid Saadaoui, Amar Hussein and Bilel Saadaoui (Image: GMP)

Saadaoui had hoped to store the guns there before launching a murderous attack on the Jewish community of North Manchester.

But he did not know that “Farouk” or “Abu Bilel” as he knew him had arranged to make sure the AK-47s and handguns he received at the Last Drop car park had been deactivated.

“Farouk” had also been monitoring Saadaoui, of Crankwood Road, Abram and his co-conspirator Amar Hussein, 52 of no fixed abode, throughout their plot.

Thanks in a large part to evidence from “Farouk”, Saadaoui was convicted of preparing acts of terrorism and this week jailed for life with a minimum term of 37 years.

Hussein was convicted of the same offence and jailed for life with a minimum term of 26 years.

Saadaoui’s 37-year-old brother Bilel Saadaoui, of Fairclough Street, Hindley was convicted of failing to disclose information about and act of terrorism and jailed for six years.

Closing the case, His Honour Mr Justice Mark Wall thanked all the counsel and police officers for their work on the case.

He thanked “Farouk” who’s identity can never be known but who Mr Justice Wall said “saved many lives by putting his own on the line”.

YOU really can’t go wrong with a curry. Warming, filling and tasty, they’re the perfect meal for this time of year.

But you don’t have to spend all your money on a takeaway to have a delicious curry at home – just ask Dan Toombs, AKA the Curry Guy.

Toombs, 60, is obsessed with bringing curries to the masses, and is releasing his 11th cookbook, The Curry Guy Slow Cooker.

After moving from California in 1993, Toombs fell in love with the British curry scene, later begging his way into restaurants to learn the secrets of the perfect dish. Now based near York, Toombs knows a thing or two about taking your curry to the next level…

Nail the base

Photo of butter chicken from Curry Guy Slow Cooker by Dan Toombs

The main thing Toombs learned from his time in curry house kitchens? It’s all about the base.

“There’s a base sauce” for pretty much every curry that’s made, he says. “It’s quite a bland sauce, similar to chicken stock or vegetable stock.

“When it’s not seasoned, you have this bland stock that you add to almost every curry, and the magic happens when it hits the pan, because you have different spices to make the different curries.”

So if you get this base sauce down – and it’s “quite simple to make”, according to Toombs – you’re golden. “It’s the secret behind how to make real curry house-style foods. It’s not something they do very much in India, it’s really a British thing.”

This base sauce is basically “an onion stock – a lot of places will put other vegetables in it, like cabbage and green pepper, but nothing that has bite to it”, and from there you can create pretty much any curry you like.

Go off-piste

Lamb Nihari from Curry Guy Slow Cooker

While recipes are a useful guide, Toombs warns against getting too hung up on them.

“A lot of people concentrate too much on the recipe rather than what they personally enjoy,” he explains. So if you like quite a saucy curry, add more stock when you’re cooking, or if you enjoy spice, then pump up the chillies.

He recommends “trying things as you go, especially if you’re trying to teach yourself how to cook” so you can “begin to know what the different spices taste like” and will know how to adjust your dish accordingly.

It’s all about trial and error: “You’ll get the idea behind it, and you can make up your own recipes once you know how to use that base sauce.”

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Dig out your slow cooker

If you have a slow cooker, it could be the secret to more flavourful curries with a whole lot less effort.

“What you do get from a slow cooker is a more intense flavour, because you’re not trying to rush things,” Toombs says. “You’re letting all those ingredients melt together.”

Plus, it’s a lot easier than slaving over a hot stove. “The thing I like about slow cookers is you really can set them and forget them, so you can go to work and know there’s not going to be any kind of issues. You’re not going to burn anything to the bottom of the pan or anything like that.”

Toombs recommends trying his recipe for lamb nihari in the slow cooker. “It’s a northern Indian/Pakistani dish which is traditionally cooked over a low heat and simmered for about three or four hours, so it’s perfect for a slow cooker,” he explains.

Dan Toombs, aka Curry Guy

“You can put it in a slow cooker on high for about four hours, or if you go to work and put the meat in there – which is normally lamb shanks – just let it become really tender for eight hours [on the low setting].”

There’s another benefit to trying your next curry in the slow cooker, with Toombs saying it transforms some of the cheaper cuts of meats into the best dishes, saving you a bit of money along the way.

“A lot of times the cheap cuts have the most flavour – the reason why they’re cheap is because they take so long to cook. But if you’re putting it in the slow cooker, it doesn’t make any difference. You let it sit there and simmer until it’s cooked through and really tender, and you get a better flavoured meat and it’s a lot less expensive.”

Prep your own spice blends and pastes

Toombs’ top tip is to make your own spice blends and pastes at home. While it might require a bit of labour to start with, once you’ve got them sorted you’ll be able to make the most delicious curries – saving you time and money.

Curry Guy Slow Cooker by Dan Toombs (Quadrille) PA Photo.

Toombs suggests that ground spices that have been sitting on the supermarket shelf for a while might not be “their best”. So if you buy fresh, whole spices, “You can toast them, you can make them taste better than just adding them in their ground form… It’s something you can just throw into a curry and you know it’s going to taste good.”

The same goes for spice pastes – and Toombs has recipes for Rogan Josh and tikka masala pastes and more in his new book. Once you’ve whipped them up, he recommends storing them in a preserve jar with an airtight lid, topping them up with oil so the flavour stays fresh.

“Spices, once they’re ground, start to lose their flavour. But by making these pastes and covering them with oil, you’re giving them a longer life,” he says. “I use them all the time.”

Try something new

From a jalfrezi to a Madras, there are the classic curries we all know and love. But if you really want to take things up a notch, Toombs recommends trying something new – like his recipe for a Sri Lankan black chicken curry.

“Unlike in India, where they don’t really use curry powders that much – they’ll use different spices, like garam masala. But in Sri Lanka, they use curry powders quite a lot,” he says.

“Curry powder is a lot of warming spices that can also have chillies in it… And the black chicken curry is one I learned when I was over in Sri Lanka, it’s one of my favourites. You roast the curry powder until it’s almost black – it’s like chocolatey brown, and that gives it a really intense flavour. I haven’t seen it in any other curries from other parts of the world, it’s something very Sri Lankan, and if you’re looking for something unique, that’s what you have to try.”

Curry Guy Slow Cooker by Dan Toombs is published by Quadrille, priced £16.99. Photography by Kris Kirkham. Available now.

The incident happened on the Cambridgeshire-Suffolk border

Four men have been arrested after an incident in which a Jeep was driven the wrong way on the A14. The incident happened near Bury St Edmunds on the Cambridgeshire-Suffolk border,

Suffolk Police were first called by a member of the public just before 12.30pm on Friday (February 13) to reports of suspected hare coursing on private land in Westhorpe, Stowmarket. Officers attended the area, at which point a further call from a member of the public alerted them that the suspects had left in a blue Jeep.

Enquiries confirmed the vehicle was travelling via back roads. It was later spotted joining the westbound A14 at J47 near Elmswell.

Officers attended the area in both marked and unmarked vehicles, and with assistance from National Police Air Service (NPAS). Rolling road blocks were placed in both directions of the A14 between junctions 43 and 42 from approximately 1.35pm.

The driver of the Jeep then attempted to evade officers by travelling the wrong way on the A14 for a short distance, before the occupants of the vehicle decamped and ran towards woodland near the Howard Estate in Bury St Edmunds. Officers pursued the suspects on foot before apprehending them.

Four men, aged in their 20s, have now been arrested on suspicion of criminal damage and trespassing, and taken to Bury St Edmunds Police Investigation Centre for questioning. Two of the men have also been arrested on suspicion of failing to stop when directed to, and for dangerous driving.

The A14 reopened by 2:10pm. The Jeep and five dogs have been seized by police.

Two British men are among three skiers who died after an avalanche struck the Val d’Isere ski resort in the French Alps, local officials have said.

The snowslide hit the village in southeastern France at around 11.30am (10.30am UK time) on Friday.

The third victim was a French national who was skiing alone high up on the mountain slope ‌when he was swept away, according to Cedric Bonnevie, a spokesperson for the resort’s slope management department.

The Britons were in a group of five people and a professional instructor who were lower down ⁠the mountain and ​did not see the ​approaching danger, he added.

They were off-piste skiing, reports said, something that was “strongly discouraged” according to a message on the resort’s website, citing a “very high avalanche risk”.

Other reports said six skiers in total were swept away, but this has not been confirmed by officials.

France’s national weather forecaster, Meteo-France, issued a red avalanche warning for the Savoie region, which borders Italy, in southeast France on Thursday.

“Very heavy snowfall” in the Alps has “triggered exceptional avalanche conditions”, the agency said on its website, with up to 60 to 100cm of fresh snow coming down.

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The new snow has landed on an “already unstable snowpack” and on Friday, the avalanche risk level was four (out of five) “across the vast majority” of the Alpine ranges.

“Avalanches are therefore easily triggered by skiers or hikers and can move very large volumes of snow. Extreme caution is advised for all mountain activities outside of marked trails,” Meteo-France said.

An inquiry into the disaster was under way, Mr Bonnevie said, adding it was not clear what caused the avalanche.

The deaths were confirmed by the Foreign Office, whose spokesperson said it was “aware of an accident in which two British men have died in France”.

“We are in contact with the local authorities and stand ready to offer consular assistance,” they added.

Anyone on the flower rota at England’s parish churches will now be reconsidering the way they do their arrangements, after Church of England leaders voted to use more seasonal and local flowers.

A motion to use sustainable flowers brought before the General Synod of the Church of England by the Bishop of Dudley, Martin Gorrick, was passed on February 12. The term “sustainable flowers” means using those that have travelled less distance, use less packaging and have been grown using without chemicals, high energy inputs or an excessive amount of water.

The General Synod, which considered the motion, is made up of all bishops plus representatives from every diocese, and includes the newly appointed Archbishop of Canterbury, Dame Sarah Mullally – who personally thanked those who brought the motion. The bishop said: “It is deeply theological, to honour the God who made the earth.”

Parish leaders will now need to be updated about what needs to change in planning the flowers for the front of the church.

For most churches this will mean using seasonal foliage and local flowers in weekly worship, rather than buying those grown thousands of miles away or by using intense heating to grow blooms out of season.

These sustainable flowers may come from churchyards, gardens, donation buckets or offerings from local garden clubs or allotment holders.

The motion encourages all places of worship to source what is local and seasonal to them, wherever possible. It aims to phase out the use of floral foam, which has traditionally been used for flower arranging. And it links the theology of stewardship of creation and the planet to how to treat nature, promoting seasonal and compostable flowers and foliage.

It is likely to mean trying different techniques such as going back to some traditional methods used before floral foam was invented in the 1950s.

I was there to hear the bishop say that the decision to phase out floral foam is about moving away from single-use plastics and manufactured alternatives, towards simpler methods of display, such as vases, sticks and other reusable and compostable materials.

What the church does matters, it uses millions of flowers every year in its displays. Its impact goes far beyond the church doors.

If the around 12,000 Church of England parishes only averaged two bunches a week, that would be over 1.2 million a year and millions of stems. Additionally there are huge numbers used at church events such as weddings and funerals, and brought into churchyards. The church’s decision could also drive more Fairtrade sales where local flowers are not available.

With this potential source of business changing, florists might be encouraged to provide plastic-free options, and consumers might be more aware when choosing their flowers – such as for St Valentine’s Day and beyond.

What else is needed?

Currently, even those who want to buy sustainable flowers will struggle to know what to look for. Details of the place of origin is rarely included on plastic wrapping and any independent verification of flowers meeting particular standards, for example Fairtrade, are rarely available to consumers. Fairtrade flowers do give more information to consumers, including place of origin and farm standards.

The Church of England’s decision shows a need for providing consumers with more information on the ecological standards that flowers have been grown to, impact on soil, biodiversity and on the local economy.

These are issues that the Sustainable Flowers Research Project, an organisation set up by me and David Bek, a professor of sustainability at Coventry University, have been working on for years. We also work with flower suppliers and buyers to create more sustainable policies on farms and in shops.

A current government-funded project with the Flower Growing Collective, a network of regional flower selling hubs, is providing new routes to market for more than 60 growers. It also is creating convenient wholesale access for florists to buy local flowers, without needing to trail around multiple farms.

Farmers who already supply seasonal flowers can be found through organisations such as Flowers from the Farm. Other useful guidance is also available to help people find more environmentally friendly flowers. And a new sustainable church flowers national award scheme will encourage and acknowledge the work being done.

Hopefully church flower arrangers around the country will embrace this new approach, and see it as changing with the times.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) — Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and the country’s main opposition leader held hands Friday as they paid tribute to the victims of one of the worst mass shootings in the country’s history at a vigil in a devastated British Columbia town.

Carney and Opposition Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre joined hands as an Indigenous leader sang a prayer outside the town hall in Tumbler Ridge.

Carney and Poilievre also spoke. The prime minister named each of the six people killed at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School and said the mother and brother of the shooter who were killed also “deserve to be mourned.”

Authorities said the 18-year-old alleged shooter, identified as Jesse Van Rootselaar, killed her 39-year-old mother, Jennifer Jacobs, and 11-year-old stepbrother, Emmett Jacobs, in their home on Tuesday before heading to the nearby Tumbler Ridge Secondary School and opening fire, killing five children and an educator before killing herself.

Carney said he sat with people who are “living through something no one should ever have to endure.”

“When you wake up tomorrow, and the world feels impossible, know that millions of Canadians are with you. When the cameras leave and the quiet sets in — know that we will still be here,” Carney said.

A crowd of hundreds attended the vigil. Some held photos of loved ones they lost.

Carney said the community has always been defined by people caring for each other.

“And when the unimaginable happened on Tuesday, you were there again. First responders at the school within two minutes. Teachers shielding their children,” he said.

Poilievre commended Carney for his “tremendous grace.” Canada’s political leaders flew from Ottawa together.

British Columbia Premier David Eby said the students of the school won’t ever have to return to the building if they don’t want to.

“I will promise that not one of you will ever be forced to go back to that school. We will provide a safe place for you to go back to school,” Eby said.

Authorities on Thursday identified those killed at the school as Kylie Smith, Abel Mwansa, Zoey Benoit and Ticaria Lampert, all age 12, as well as 13-year-old Ezekiel Schofield and assistant teacher Shannda Aviugana-Durand, 39.

Maya Gebala, 12, who was wounded in the head and neck, and Paige Hoekstra, 19, who also suffered bullet wounds, remain hospitalized in Vancouver.

Dwayne McDonald, the deputy commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in British Columbia, said earlier Friday that the alleged shooter did not appear to be searching for a specific target at the school.

“This suspect was, for lack of a better term, hunting,” McDonald said. “They were prepared and engaging anybody and everybody they could come in contact with.”

McDonald described a “chaotic” scene at the school when police arrived, with fire alarms sounding and a person yelling out a window that the suspect was upstairs.

“They entered the school, proceeded to go up the stairwell, and were met with gunfire,” he said. “It was a matter of seconds after that there was more gunfire, not as we know now, having reviewed video, directed at any persons. Then the suspect took their life.”

McDonald said from the time the suspect encountered police there were no further injuries to students at the school.

Four guns were seized, two from the family home and two from the school, he said.

The attack was Canada’s deadliest since 2020, when a gunman in Nova Scotia killed 13 people and set fires that left another nine dead.

School shootings are rare in Canada, which has strict gun-control laws. The government has responded to previous mass shootings with gun-control measures, including a recently broadened ban on all guns it considers assault weapons.

___

Gillies reported from Toronto.